Saturday, September 7, 2013

A mall to spur housing?

The Times Ledger - (and doesn’t Joe Anuta do a good reporting
job on Willets Point?) - has a good story on Tuesday’s City Council hearing; and
the report exposes the inanity of the developer’s rationale for the
development. Here’s the description of the reason why the mall is precursor to
all of the things originally promised for Willets Point:

“The partnership
contends this sequencing is essential to ensure the entire vision can be
realized. They have repeatedly said the only way to develop Willets Point
according to the 2008 plan was to create an economic engine to drive the
project, namely the 1.4 million square foot retail and entertainment complex
proposed for the west of Citi Field.

Now we have always admired Masyr’s ability to spin a yarn,
but let’s deconstruct this particularly tall tale. In order to afford to build
housing, there is a need to build the largest mall in NYC so as to create a
destination that makes the housing affordable-and not affordable in the way the
term is now understood:

“Basically, the joint
venture needs to have the mall and a proposed retail strip along 126th Street
up and running to not only offset other costs of the project, but to create a
destination to make the housing component more attractive.”

Crazy, no? Everyone wants to live in the neighborhood
immediately contiguous to the city’s largest retail center? Even if you believe
the traffic reports from consultants who have demonstrated a very thin regard
for professional accuracy, this rationale is tough to accept. Can you imagine
trying to and from work with tens of thousands of daily and weekly car and
truck trips clogging the streets and access roads to you home?

WPU’s Jerry Antonacci has more credibility when he points
out the likely scenario here:

“But opponents have
long contended that the city and developers only want the mall and do not want
to build the housing, which includes 875 affordable units. The partnership
would be required to pay a $35 million penalty for not building the housing,
contracts show, but the city is also not contractually obligated to build the
ramps. If the ramps never get built, then the joint venture is off the hook.

By obtaining this
current permit, they will have made the parking lot legal, which would not have
been permissible under the special zoning written in 2008. According to Iron
Triangle property owners, this is all part of the plan.

“Mark my words: No
housing is ever going to be built,” said Jerry Antonacci, a member of
opposition group Willets Point United, who spoke in an informational video
about the project and testified at City Hall Tuesday.”

All of which makes this the Wimpy deal we have described it
as-with the developer’s gladly paying Tuesday (for housing years from now), for
a mall (the Wimpy hamburger) they get today. And those two thousand units of
affordable housing, what happened to them?

“But opponents have long contended that the city and
developers only want the mall and do not want to build the housing, which
includes 875 affordable units.” So
not only do the developers get the land for free-in spite of the fact that the
city promised the city council in 2008 that it would be reimbursed by the
developer eventually selected-but they also get to put off the linchpin of the
original approval to years from now when many of us will n longer be around.

The fact remains-and should be indisputable-an
administration that has already lied to get this plan approved in 2008, and
won’t be around in the middle of the next decade to be held accountable, should
not be believed about any of the assertions it has made concerning the eventual
end game at Willets Point.

John Adams (Founding Father & 2nd President of the United States):

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be sacred or liberty cannot exist."

Jake Bono on Fox News

Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2012

The Neighborhood Retail Alliance

Queens Crap

The Bullpen Shop

Under the plan of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The Bullpen Shop is to be demolished and its property forcibly acquired via eminent domain, to enable the Mayor's controversial $4,000,000,000.00 legacy development project.